Authors
Luigi Pagliarini, Henrik Hautop Lund
Corresponding Author
Luigi Pagliarini
Available Online 1 June 2016.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.2991/jrnal.2016.3.1.7
Keywords
Assistive Technology, Robotics, Prevention, Rehabilitation, Healing, Production.
Abstract
We analyse the state of the art of hi-tech and robot based technologies
in terms of Assistive Technology for all patients and, in particular, elderly
people assistance and everyday activities aid. We focus on different aspects
and characteristics of these tools, such as playfulness, invasiveness,
learning-speed, efficiency, short and long-term effect, active vs. passive,
etc. We do so by showing the most important existing examples, and by taking
into account all the possible factors that might help researchers when
thinking of developing appropriate technologies for elderly care, as well
as, for their relative assistance personnel. Indeed, while in rehabilitation
robotics, a major role is played by the human–machine interface (HMI) used
to gather the patient’s intent from biological signals, and convert them
into control signals for the robotic artefacts, surprisingly, decades of
research have not yet declared what the optimal HMI is in this context
[1]. Further, there is an urgent need to clarify how various technologies
can be a goal or an approach for preventive, rehabilitative and assistive
interaction. Therefore, we try to make a first step towards a redefinition
of Robotics Assistive Technology.
Copyright
© 2013, the Authors. Published by ALife Robotics Corp. Ltd.
Open Access
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).